The remarkable photographs collected together for this book show in graphic detail the role armour played in the Allied struggle to exploit the D-Day landings and liberate occupied France – and the skill and tenacity of the German panzer units that confronted them. The struggle gave rise to a sequence of battles that were among the most intense, and critical, of any fought in the Second World War.

Anthony Tucker-Jones traces the entire course of the armoured campaign through the photographs – the D-Day landings, the first clashes of the opposing tanks and anti-tank guns, then the Allied operations – Epsom, Charnwood, Goodwood, Cobra - that culminated in the Allied breakthrough and the destruction of the German 5th Panzer Army at Falaise.

The images offer a fascinating inside view of the fighting itself – and of the widespread destruction and horrific casualties that went with it. But they also record the routines of tank warfare, and give a vivid impression of the experience of the tank crews of the day and of the tanks they operated – the German Mk IVs, Panthers, Tigers and self-propelled guns, and the Allied Shermans, Churchills and specialized tanks – Hobart’s Funnies – that confronted each other in the French countryside and towns.